Jenny, Jessica, and Brett served in Bolivia with Mario Morales and the House of Hope in Cochabamba, Bolivia.Pastor Raul's interview of the three volunteer missionaries is a touching story of their call, their step of faith, and the impact the community and the volunteers had on each other.

Bolivia is quite a
unique country, completely different from anywhere else in the world,
especially when it comes to comparing it to first-world countries like the
United States. There are people selling goods on sidewalks, chaotic traffic,
colorful parades, at least one demonstration every week, and every other thing
that makes this land so particular. Now, if there’s one thing that millions of
Bolivians and Americans have in common is their faith in Jesus Christ, the
Savior.

After receiving a call
from God in their hearts, fellow West Virginians Jenny, Jessica, Brett have
arrived to this country with different concepts and visions but with the same
mission: to spread the Word of our Lord and be of service for anyone in need.
When in the U.S., they all attend Elizabeth Baptist Church. All three
missionaries grew up in Christian households where they received the Word on a
daily basis.

Jenny’s mother played a
critical role in her daughter becoming a follower of Jesus Christ by taking her
to church when she was a child. Jessica had a similar relationship with her
aunt. She accepted the Lord as her Savior when she was sixteen. Brett was
raised as a believer by his family, too. They were the ones that taught and
showed him the way. “That’s just where my life was”, he confesses.

They received the call
from God on different occasions and under a variety of circumstances. Jenny
says it’s sometimes very hard for her to talk about it, “I’ve never been
anywhere and the Lord called me to come to Bolivia”, she says, “I struggled for
several months with that and the Lord took care of all my indecisions and all
my fears and brought me here”. What did it take? Just a lot of prayer and the
unconditional, loving support of her mission-minded husband, John. Jenny’s even
brought her granddaughter here and she can’t wait to come again!

Being of service is what
made Brett hear God’s call: “As a Christian I’ve always been a servant. I just
feel the need to serve people”, he explains, “but first it was mostly just to
serve people at home and, well, this is my first trip. I just heard the call
and the responsibility came… and I came”. He also tells how he missed an
earlier opportunity to visit Bolivia supporting a group of youngsters from his
church. Eventually, he got his chance because he felt that God was telling him
to come here, so that’s when he decided he needed to come.

Jessica had heard some
people from her church tell stories about the mission work and that’s how she
became interested. “I felt that maybe that’s what God wanted me to do”, she
says. But it wasn't quite a quick decision to make, “I guess that I put it off
long enough and when Jenny said ‘I heard you wanted to go to Bolivia sometime’
I said ‘Yes, I do’ and here I am”, she tells us with a big smile on her face.

Change is never easy, so
when the time came for their first trip to Bolivia all three missionaries had
different expectations about the mission work. And their first impressions were
just as different. Brett’s wife had come twice before him and he helped her put
music to pictures to present them at their church “so I pretty much knew what
everybody looked like and what the place looked like”, he explains. He’s found
the lifestyle here completely new, though, “the vendors on the streets,
everybody’s out trying to make money any way they can, where at home people go
out to work and when there’s spare time they’re in the house or doing hobbies.
It’s totally different culture”.

The positive energy in
people here is what surprised Jessica the most when she first arrived here. “I
expected it to be a poor place where maybe people didn’t have the kind of lifestyle
that we enjoy at home”, she elaborates, “but what surprised me was their
attitudes about their life are better than ours at home. They’ve got every
reason to be sad and angry but the ones I’ve met personally are not”.

The now experienced
missionary Jenny first arrived in Bolivia in 2004. Her impression then was one
of amazement: “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, to be honest. It was so
much chaos!”, she says frankly. It was all new to her: “the traffic, and the
horns, and the despair, and the poor people, and the hunger”. However, she’s
witnessed a lot of change over the years, some of it for the good and some of
it for the better and she has grown very fond of this land, too: “when I land
here I always feel that it’s a place I can call ‘home’. I get the feeling like
‘well, you’re home at last’, she concludes.

When it comes to what is
it that they like the most about Bolivia, the three Americans answer in turns.
Jenny looks forward to seeing her friends here but she does have a place she
always asks to go to: Toro Toro. “It’s so quaint!”, says the veteran
missionary. Brett has found the people here very loving and willing to help
others. He says it’s phenomenal and that the presence of God is really felt and
it’s the same everywhere. Then Jessica, in a happy tone declares her favorite
part was the activity they had that day at Kumi Ministry. She just loves to see
the kids having a great time running and playing, “but ask me tomorrow, I might
tell you whatever it is that we do tomorrow would be my favorite part. I don’t
know”.

“Integral mission” is a
rather serious concept. It involves sacrifice, love, a lot of work, and most
importantly, placing the Word of God in the hearts of all the people we help.
Brett believes it’s vital to tell people that Jesus loves them whenever they’re
being helped because there are physical needs as well as spiritual needs. For
Jenny it’s literally “helping people help others. We don’t want to just give
them money or things to keep them going, we want to teach them how to take care
of themselves”. She’s seen a lot of people and a lot of places and when she
thinks about the biggest needs in this country she openly says she’s sure there
are lots of them. Nonetheless, she makes it a point to emphasize on nutrition,
especially talking about children because, as she puts it: “without proper
nutrition when you’re small, you don’t grow up to be a healthy adult”.

The experience of these
workers of God in our country has changed our people’s lives as well as their
own. Jessica says for her it’s been humbling and life-changing. “For ‘humbling’
I think your problems aren't the only problems in the world; that other people
have a lot bigger problems than you”, she declares, “And ‘life-changing’, well,
I don’t know. I guess everything about it. You never look at it the same”, the
missionary continues.

In the end experiences
have been gained. Lives have been touched. Stories have been told. The Word of
our Lord is currently being spread. And our three missionaries are finally
asked to leave a message to the people in Bolivia. They all have something
beautiful to say and share as people of faith serving people in need. “I would
leave with them the message that with Jesus Christ there is hope”,
affectionately expresses Jenny. We turn our heads to Jessica as she says some
truly powerful words: “If God is for you, then who could be against you?”. And
last, but certainly not least, Brett leaves a message he really seems to
believe in, “I just think that the love of Christ is for all people, not just
believers, and we’re all God’s people”, he pronounces with conviction.